Quote:
Originally Posted by Greycloak
T20 for trap checking is a different issue for me.
Like I said some other time before, if the PCs abuse the T20 rules for traps in my game the monsters start to get automatic T20 checks as well (adjusted for distance etc.) to hear the group standing around as each millimetre gets looked over.
|
1. It's a subjective call about what is abusive, but I don't have an attitude that players can be considered to abuse something that is a legal part of the rules. It's like claiming someone is abusing Power Attack. T20 its nominally a 2 minute search per the rules and it has negligible impace in real time for someone to T20.
2. Giving monsters T20's on hearing someone T20 to search for Traps is completely reasonable. Just remember the non-searching players would get the same T20 on their perception/listen checks to hear the monsters as well.
That having been said, I think it's perfectly reasonable and desirable for the a module/scenario to try to control the speed at which PC's need to move through the encounters. Just as some times being
overly cautious, or more accurately, taking too much time in any given section should be fraught with peril, so should moving too quickly. And the module should give clues as to when to do which.
In any good novel, the author gives the reader clues on what to expect. Bringing something in from left field that no reader could have anticipated, is not the hallmark of good writing. A good module is similar. It should reward players for paying attention, not throw curve ball after slider after knuckleball to prove the author is able to outsmart the player. One of the cheats for any module is that it doesn't have to be plausible. An author/GM can introduce any kind of nonsensical encounter/trap without having to justify why such a thing exists or how it could ever come into being. So it's trivial to fool players into making bad decisions.
Short version: There should always be consequences to decisions, but those consequences should be employed as an organic/plausible reason rather than the GM trying to punish players or dictate how the game should be played.
Just my opinion.